


The Fall

by ravenlights



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Implied Kylo Ren/Rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 10:09:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20172505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenlights/pseuds/ravenlights
Summary: Alternate ending to The Force Awakens. Self-indulgent bs.





	The Fall

In war, there is always a fall. 

A meticulous cut of the blade, rivers of fire and blood. A crumble to ashes, millions of particles of smoke climbing up to the sky, glittering against the backdrop of stars and planets. Perhaps in eons they too will collapse in on themselves, forming new life from destruction.

There is always a fall - empires, planets, people.

There is always a fall. 

But not he.

Never him, a golden boy whose luster was tarnished beyond repair, but who remained golden nevertheless. A favored knight, a servant to the dark. A new hope for the monsters who yearned to carve their place into the gaping void of the dark side but whose jagged claws would slip through it like water without his hand to guide them.

Never him. 

Not until _her_, a hurricane of a girl who lashed all the fury from his fire until his limbs turned to ash and he crumbled to the snow.

Now all that is left is the ragged sound of his breath, the desperate beat of his heart.

Both create a resounding echo that slams into the lifeblood of the Force, a soundless scream that tears through his head, agonizing in all its silence. 

Rey can hear it too. Kylo Ren sees the corners of her lips turn down, watches as her eyes snap closed and then open again, because she knows she cannot afford to lose a second. 

In war, there are no stolen seconds for rest. There is no accordance for hesitation.

And this, this is the end, this is the fall, this is violence dressed in all her finery, an imitation of the apocalypse. A fractured planet falling to ruin, a blazing streak of stars burning across the sky, lights flickering in and out from behind a filter of winter trees.

Kylo Ren’s fingers curl against the frozen ground, dislodging a clump of snow that works its way between his sleeve and glove. The cold sting against his inner wrist is enough to jar him back to the reality before him.

A second breath. A second beat of his heart. 

It is not stars falling from the sky.

Stars do not fall. 

Empires fall. 

People fall. 

There is a discordant whine in the air as X-Wings and TIE fighters alike plummet from the sky, their fate to be obliterated upon the surface of Starkiller Base or swallowed up into the vastness of space. It matters not, for the outcome is all the same in war. 

Destruction. 

Annihilation.

“Monster!” Rey brands him now, the storm hovering above him, spitting out the word like poison. The blue blade in her hand stills in the air, and the hum of the saber is an oddly comforting sound, echoing in his head somewhere in between the silent notes of the Force’s lifesong. 

Kylo Ren’s hand drags across the cold ground until his fingers wrap around the hilt of his own lightsaber. 

It ignites. 

Another breath, another beat of his heart.

Vaguely, beneath it all, beneath the falling sky, beneath the storm clouds, beneath the song of the force, there is searing pain.

It cuts through his chest, deep into his flesh, another beat of his heart and the heat of agony rises to meet it. 

Rey’s saber hums a victory song in his ears and after a long, slow blink, he can see her, teeth bared, her expression as cold as the icy wind that whips her hair from its ties. 

She is exquisite in all her raw, untamed power. Together they could rise, if only he could teach her, if only she would let him.

If only. If only.

If only mercy had a haven in war, if only the storm would calm, if only his heart would deliver him two more beats, if only his lungs would grant him two more breaths.

His fingers go slack against the hilt of his weapon, the red glow of the blades snuffed out in an instant. 

If only he could rise up, rise up, let fury herself take his hand, stand by his side. Together they could fracture the universe until the sky bled, and when she would call him monster the word would taste like affection. 

But not this. Not ever. 

And when the fall comes, it is a silent suffocation, the silent scream in Kylo Ren’s head growing louder as the Force cries out in his defense. 

But it cannot save him, not this time, not from the favored daughter that it has made its own this day. And Kylo Ren wonders, somewhere in between the blink of an eye and the beat of his heart if this rejection was destined from the start, if he was always meant to fall.

The world goes black, a hiss of air escaping between his teeth in one last act of defiance, his warm breath swallowed up in the howling, frozen winds. 

And as his heart comes to a stop not with a shudder but with the smallest whisper, a girl made of gold, shining bright against the blue-grey storm clouds and a thicket of trees, looks down upon him with hungry eyes.

There, on a fractured planet watered with the blood of the once chosen one, the Force anoints a new priestess to be its guardian, its protector, its servant. A woman from the desert who finds her feet planted in a field of snow, an untrained warrior with wild rage in her veins and the ferocity to fell even the most adept of soldiers.

In war, there is always a fall.

And without him, she rises.


End file.
